What Else Can Go Wrong!
by Nepenthe T. Hedgehog
Summary: All Knuckles wants to do is restore the Master Emerald and go to sleep! Problem is, he can't find the very last shard. When he does find it, it seems fate doesn't want it to stay in his hands for very long. Random OS.


"Finally!" the exhausted echidna huffed out, dragging his heavy feet up the stone stairwell, a sack full of green jewel shards in tow.

This journey had to be Knuckles' longest emerald hunt ever. He'd been on the run non-stop for five days and five nights, completely neglecting food and rest in favor of finding the Master Emerald shards as soon as he could. The few breaks he had consisted of downing a few gulps of water from a nearby creek or pond. And after that, he was off again. But now, all of his hard work, endurance, and restlessness had paid off. The Master Emerald would soon be restored in its rightful place, Angel Island would rise back up into the sky, and he could get the relaxation and nourishment he so desperately needed and deserved.

Upon making his way onto the top of the shrine, he straightened his sore body into a more dignified gait in a show of respect. He brought the sack around in front and opened it up with both hands, watching in heartfelt relief as the emerald pieces inexplicably began to float in the air all on their own. A grin formed on his grizzled muzzle at the thought of what would come again in the next few moments. A bright flash emerged from thin air, completely painting the environment a pure white and seemingly stopping time. Taking his hand down from his eyes as the world began to emerge once more, he looked towards the alter in pure awe...

The emerald was still unfinished!

His longing for peace was pushed aside as he began pondering over the fact that after such an intensive search, he had overlooked some of the keys to his treasure. However, after judging from the size of the missing chunk, only one shard was needed to complete the jewel. With a hand on his chin and his mind traversing the paths his body did over the past five days, the echidna found himself in a circular pace.

"Alright, where could I have missed it?... I saw where _every single piece _shot off to. I sensed_ every single one _in the entire area. I doubt anyone _took it_, I-..." With a frustrating sigh, he dropped the search in favor of yelling his troubles away, "Where in the world is it! It has to be close by! It has to-..."

A glance at one of the pillars and he found the last piece right at the base.

"Oh..."

Clearing his throat as embarrassment began to set in, he jumped down from the shrine and landed neatly in a grassy patch. Walking over the surrounding pathway and around several boulders, he made his way in front of the lonely emerald. He dismissed his forgetfulness when picking up the shard, the solution to all of his problems finally in hand. He walked from under the sparing shade of the pillar's shadow and out into the bright sunlight, holding the gem in front of the sun. But low and behold.

"What in the-!"

That darn seagull stole his shard right out of his unsuspecting hand! It was always taking advantage of him, stealing his grapes... stealing his fish... stealing his clothing... always stealing from him while he lay on top of the Floating Island, helpless, and unable to grab the flying crap sack and wring its tiny, little, fish-sucking neck...

It was heading towards the sea as usual, when it suddenly cocked its head to the side to look at him, gave an ear-piercing squawk, and decided to take a dive. Although confused by its new show of behavior, Knuckles threw his murderous thoughts aside. He saw his chance and decided to take it, taking the ultimate leap of faith by performing a running jump off of the island's edge. Knuckles managed to slow his fall by swiping at the bird multiple times while it dodged swiftly around his arms, instead of taking off in another direction like a "smarter" bird would have.

"Darn it, give me that you rat with wings!" He now felt the thing was playing with him, and indeed it was as he was about to find out in about... three seconds.

While focused on the white menace that was right in front of him, he failed to realize he was heading headfirst for a wall of water at about 100 miles per hour. He realized it too late, as the bird ended up gliding across the water, gracefully but smugly, while the poor echidna pounded nose first into water, remaining on the surface for a split second before sinking. The gull let out squawk after squawk in a raunchy laugh, watching Knuckles scramble his way back to the surface.

"Agh! You stupid– You just wait," he began swimming in its general direction, unable to keep up easily, "Sooner or later, you're gonna meet an untimely end..."

The bird snapped its head around and gave out another screeching call to Knuckles... while flying right into the jaws of the real Bruce! The mad shark broke through the surface of the water teeth first, grabbing the plump bird around its body within the blink of an eye. In the midst of struggling futilely against its sealed fate, the bird dropped the emerald shard and to Knuckles' glee, disappeared under the water forever. With a malevolent chuckle and a quick glance to his left, he saw a green light bobbing up and down in the sea.

"_What_ a coincidence."

A smirk of relief from his prior trials and tribulations appeared on his face as he began a slow-paced swim for the little gem. Although exhausted and every muscle sore beyond comprehension, every stroke filled the guardian with more strength and incentive to swim towards the murder site and grab his ticket to peace once more. Everything would soon be over, and he could get back to doing his job. Just a _few more feet... _

How ironic that another hungry fish would be in the same area as the gem, and how ironic that it swallowed the gem in one gulp before diving down once more.

"... What! No! _Oh_ no! You are _not _getting away, ya greedy little monster!" he snapped, diving under the water again.

It didn't take him long to find the finned culprit throughout a scattering school. It was the one with a green glow emitting from its stomach. Frowning, the echidna paddled hard through the water, rage taking over his actions now. Meanwhile the fish, sleepy and full, became vigilant once more when it noticed something fighting through the water, heading right towards it. The face of the red-eyed guardian broke through a shield of bubbles with one more stroke of his arms, and the fish swam around him in fright. But Knuckles about-faced rather quickly and was right on its tail once more. The fish continued darting this way and that, confusing him sometimes, but never able to shake him off due to the obvious signal of his last meal.

Knuckles' hopes, like his small air supply, were dropping. He felt he would never restore the emerald now. As good a swimmer as he was, he still knew that the little fish was just too quick for him. With his lungs deflating painfully and the need to resurface rising, he just knew he would lose the fish the moment his eyes left it. With a new plan madly constructing itself inside his head, however, he gave the fish a wide berth while going behind it in a desperate attempt to catch it off guard. It seemed to be working as the fish was doing nothing but floating up in the water, probably thinking that it had survived again for the day. Not quite. The guardian was only mere inches behind it now. He was now _so close..._

"Ngh-!"

After being knocked in the head by the hull of a boat, Knuckles temporarily lost consciousness, but not before noticing four strands of rope suddenly appearing in view through the water...

_Splat!_

"Ugh, okay... ouch..."

The dazed echidna sat up, surrounded by a huge catch of fish up to his chest. He had just been dropped off beside a large, open warehouse; a canning facility. All around him were similar piles of unlucky fish, constantly being enlarged by loads that were dropped from the back of trucks.

"My head... ugh, where am I?... The city no doubt, but where is the- Wait, where's the emerald! Where is it! I–" He calmed down long enough to pick up the extremely strong signal right underneath him.

"Oh. Heheh, it seems the fish got caught too. How lucky can you get-- Oh–... Oh no!"

The guardian had been completely ignored as a trucker emptied another large batch of fish right on top of his head. The aroma of hot, dead fish was bad enough, but to be covered in it was just unbearable. Worse yet, it was slightly difficult to move with the weight on top of him, but how to move was not the problem anymore. The problem now was...

What was moving him?

With a squirming effort, Knuckles managed to resurface the upper part of his body just in time to see that he was about to end up like his fish buddy. He was now on a conveyor belt and heading straight for a piece of machinery that diced the fish into neat chunks to be stuffed in the cans. For a second, he froze up as he came inch after inch closer to death. His eyes could only go up and down with the guillotines' motion in blood-curdling horror. It was only until he was a few feet from it that he let out a girlish, high-pitched squeal and scrambled his way out of the mass of fish. But in his fit to get away, he slipped on the pile and fell off of the conveyor belt, hitting his jaw on a control console and flipping to land on his back.

"Ohhh... what else can go wrong?" He asked himself miserably, spitting out a tooth afterwards.

Something else could go wrong, and indeed it was about to. He had suddenly remembered that the last jewel shard was still up there and about to be crunched to bits! Wasting no time to try and get it back before it was destroyed, Knuckles jumped to his feet and rebounded off of the console, heading upwards towards the conveyor belt. He grabbed ahold of the steel guardrail and flipped himself upwards onto the belt, immediately faced with a falling blade that managed to grab at a bit of chest fur. He jumped back a few feet, slightly off balance due to constantly moving ground, and felt it best to go around the other side where it was safer. He had been too late, as he could feel a small aura being contained. His emerald shard was in a can, but the question was which one?

As he glided around to the other side of machine, can after can after can surfaced itself from the exit. He would have never found the right one if it weren't for the fact that one of them seemed to have an aura to it. But once again, one problem was solved while another one came up. The cans were now being separated, apparently depending on the content of the cans. The highest quality of cans continued down the conveyor belt to be packed in boxes, while those that didn't make the grade were dropped into another machine that launched them into an incinerator. He knew his can was doomed, but he had to get it or Angel Island would never see the sky again.

"Ohhh, crud..."

The echidna started to scramble as fast as he could around the assembly line of cans while trying not to trip up, but it was inevitable. He knocked one can down on its side and managed to place a foot on it, repeating this time-wasting process over and over until he was sliding down the belt with renewed speed. He concentrated on the energy again and he could see the can heading right for the incinerator. At this rate it would be much too late, so the banged-up echidna made a flying leap towards the sorting machine.

"It's right there! It's right there! It's right... oh, shoot!"

He landed right onto the sorting machine instead, knocking the wind out of himself. The crashing impact of his body on the machine caused it to shift direction, aiming upwards for one of the open windows on the upper story of the warehouse. As predicted, his can was thrown into the machine, but instead of being launched down into a fiery death, the can soared into the wild blue yonder.

"The... emer–ald... it's..._ Ohhh_," he moaned, falling to the ground.

Ignoring the fact that he was now probably suffering internal bleeding from colliding into a chunk of metal, Knuckles picked his ragged and bruised body up off of the floor and stumbled out of the nearest exit. Amazingly, he could still see the can in the air and with a grin of determination, he began running at his full pace. Nothing would get in his way now; absolutely nothing. After passing under the can, which was now coming towards the ground once more, Knuckles turned around and held his hands out in front, waiting for the can to safely make its way into the palms of his hands. He continued running backwards to make sure he caught it, forgetting one minor detail about the city streets...

"I got it!... I got it!... I _got it_!...I– Agh!"

Just as the can was to finally land in his hands, Knuckles tripped down the street, which took a steep and immediate decline from the flat land he was just walking on. He tumbled head over heels while trying to stop himself, but this did nothing except helping him acquire some nasty road rash burns and scratches. The abused guardian rolled to a slow stop at the bottom of the street, and let himself go limp. He was now thinking that this unfortunate series of events was not worth it. All of this pain and anguish for something so small, but being the way he is, he remembered the big picture and the consequences that would come if he did not retrieve the last piece. So once again, despite the fact that he truly needed a rest, he picked himself off of the ground and started back up the street from whence he came.

Bringing his focus away from his pain, he squinted his bloodshot eyes to see something small and white coming down the street towards him. It was the can rolling down the hill. This moment was too good to be true. The streets were clear and no cars could be heard, the can was now coming towards him instead of the other way around, and he was alone. Absolutely nothing could stop him from getting it now! Now, he could get back to his home, restore peace, and sit himself right on top of that alter where he belonged! Rest, food, and peace. It was all so close to happening. Forget the pain, he thought. He began running his full speed towards the little can, which was just rolling along. He was so happy. The vicinity was completely harmless, the emerald was safe and sound, the sun was shining brighter. It was a regular _Chariots of Fire _moment. With a few more bounds, Knuckles scooped up the can, hopping up and down as if he had just won the gold.

"I've got it! I've finally got it! Yes! Whoo-hoo! I got it! I got–"

The echidna and the can, well half of the can, were thrown over a car after the surprised driver rammed straight into them, seeing as how he was standing in a blind part of the road. To the few bystanders who saw the incident, the fact that the driver was doing about 30 over the speed limit wasn't the funny the part, but Knuckles' landing. He launched off of the windshield, flipped like a ragdoll in the air, landed right on his feet, hit a front flip, _then_ fell over. After coughing out some more teeth and looking through his swollen eyes, he barely managed to make out a tiny green object, jutting out of a pile fish that was splattered all over the sidewalk.

"Ohh... what else can go wrong?"

"Hey, Knuckles!"

Great. Coupled with the worst day in his life, coming down the street was one of the most annoying people to ever enter his life. That darn blue hedgehog...

"Say... What happened to you? You look pretty bad?"

"Trust me, Sonic... you wouldn't believe me at all."

"Hey, you lookin' for this?" he said, snatching up the emerald shard and handing it to him, while suddenly dropping the fact that Knuckles looked as if a pair of rottweilers had been unleashed on him.

Knuckles, who was now frowning at Sonic, just stood up and brushed himself off and straightened out his fur, completely quiet.

"Aren't you going to take it?"

He was silent.

"Dude, I know you've wanted it for awhile now, and–"

Knuckles snatched it from Sonic, pushed him aside and stormed off, "Just shut up!"

"What'd I do? I mean, I–"

"Shut it up!"

"_Jeez!_" the hedgehog exclaimed, brushing himself off, "Good help isn't even appreciated anymore."


End file.
